World's Largest Hole in a Lake

Note: This post is a an updated and merged post of all the posts I had made earlier on the subject. The two "hole in a lake" covered in earlier posts have now been included in this post (#3 & 4)

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The so called "hole in a lake" is actually a spillway for automatically controlling the maximum level of a lake, created by a dam. Unlike other spillways these spillways are surrounded on all sides by water and from top these look like a hole in water surface. Such spillways are also known as morning glory hole or glory hole or plughole or inverted bell-mouth spillway.

As per my latest information the "Largest Hole in a Lake" in descending order of diameter, are located in;

1. Jatiluhur Reservoir, Java Island, Indonesia (Mouth diameter 90 metres - 295 feet)
2. Whiskeytown Lake, Shasta County, USA (26.8 metres - 44 feet)
3. Ladybower Reservoir, Upper Derwent Valley, Derbyshire, England. (Two numbers - 24.3 metres - 80 ft each).
4. Berryessa Lake, Monticello Dam, California, USA (22 metres - 72 feet).

1. World's Largest Hole in a Lake - Jatiluhur Reservoir

The largest morning glory hole in the World is located in the Jatiluhur Reservoir, Java Island, Indonesia. Although the shape of the the hole is not like a morning glory flower but technically it is a morning glory type spillway. The diameter of the opening is whopping 90 metres (295 feet).

The cylindrical shaped tower is multi-purpose and besides being a spillway it also acts as intake for water turbines and Irrigation channel located underneath the tower.

The vastness of this hole can be gauged by the fact the its diameter is larger than the sum of the diameters of three next large holes in the World and it is also more than 3 times than its nearest rival at Whiskeytown lake!!

Image from Panoramio is by budisantoso

Image source: Google Maps

View location in Google Earth / Google Maps

Source of info and more info: jatiluhurdam.wordpress.com (In Indonesian) (English Translation)

Credits: BridgePlayer for finding it and making a post about it in GEC Forum.

2. World's Second Largest Hole in a Lake - Whiskeytown Lake

The morning glory hole type spillway in the Whiskeytown Lake, Shasta County, California, is the second largest hole in a lake in the World.

The spillway crest has a diameter of 26.8 metres (44 feet) and the bore gradually tapers down to 7.5 metres (24.5 feet).

Image from Flickr is by pressuretobear

Image Source Google Maps



View location in Google Earth / Google Maps

Main source of info: US Bureau of Reclamation (pdf)

Credits: I am thankful to Maria Kokokovitch for bringing this to my knowledge.

World's Third Largest Hole in a Lake - Ladybower Reservoir

This hole in the Ladybower Reservoir, Upper Derwent Valley, Derbyshire, England is World's Third largest and Europe's largest bellmouth Spillway. Such spillways are provided in many man made lakes to automatically maintain the level of the lakes. These are designed like an inverted bell and are commonly called morning glory hole, plughole, glory hole, or bell-mouth spillways.

The Ladybower Reservoir has been provided with two bellmouth overflows (locally named the 'plugholes') each having inlet diameter of about 24.3 metres (80 ft) which tapers to about 4.5 metres (15 ft) at its exit located at the base of the dam.

Image from Flickr is by kpc

Image from Flickr is by Three-Legged-Cat

Image from Flickr is by LuLu Witch

View location in Google Earth Google Maps

Source of Info: Wikipedia

Credits: I am thankful to Anonymous for bringing this to my knowledge.

World's Fourth Largest Hole in a Lake - Lake Berryessa

This spillway located in lake Berryessa , Monticello Dam, California is Fourth largest glory hole in the World.

The intake diameter is about 22 metres (72 feet) and it tapers down to to about 8.5 metres (28 feet).

Image from Panoramio is by Auggee

This is how it looks when water level is down;

Image from Panoramio is by candjfields

The water over flow exits to a point downstream of the dam through a tunnel as seen below;
 

View in Google Earth / Google Maps

More info at daviswiki.org